Manchester’s Northern Quarter Celebrates The Diamond Jubilee

Rachael Heslehurst does the Northern Quarter street party rounds

CELEBRATIONS were in full swing in Manchester’s fashionable Northern Quarter this Bank Holiday Monday, as hundreds of people gathered together to commemorate Queen Elizabeth ll’s Diamond Jubilee.

"Everyone’s enjoying themselves and having a great time, a table even just broke over there from a group of girls getting too excited and dancing on it."

Street parties were held from noon till 9pm, including N4LOVESQE2 on Thomas Street, put together by the same people who championed last year’s post-riot street party.

God Save The Queen was at The Bay Horse on Thomas Street, where Queen’s ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’ could be heard booming from The DJ box in front of a crowd of happy people chomping away at their pork sandwiches from the delicious hog roast. Queues of onlookers itching to be next in line for the street parties could be seen from Piccadilly Gardens, armed with flags and silly hats all in a collection of red white and blue.

On the opposite side of Thomas Street was Odd Bar’s Jubilant Jubilee party, which held host to a vibrant scene of trendy Northern Quarter regulars, drenched in Pimms and dancing the day away to house music. The queues to get in this side weren’t half as large though as the High Street’s BluuBar, Socio Rehab and Keko Moku’s street party, where people were waiting in line for some time.

Student Sophie Dulson, who enjoyed the street party from Odd Bar, said: “There’s such a cool atmosphere here. Everyone’s enjoying themselves and having a great time, a table even just broke over there from a group of girls getting too excited and dancing on it. I love you Queen Lizzy.”

The street parties weren’t just for the young mix of Northern Quarter goers though. The street party at Stephenson Square was family friendly and included five bands, four soup box poets, DJs, games, face painting, live street art and lots of food and drink.

‘Rhapsody of Realities’, a Christ Embassy life guide was also out and about at Piccadilly Gardens, in partnership with Reachout Christ Embassy Manchester Diamond Jubilee Campaign UK 2012, which seen church goers dancing away in colourful wigs and splashes of face paint, as they celebrated her majesty’s Diamond Jubilee.

When the street parties died down, all that was left were an array of paper cups, streams of red white and blue, a broken table, a few headless masks of The Royal Family and a knowing feeling the day had been a good one.

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